Sky Broadband seems to be tipping the scale for broadband speeds with offerings of up to 6Mbps and 12 Mbps packages for residential accounts. Just got a pamphlet from their roving people asking residents to switch.
Previously the top speeds for residential DSL lines are somewhere between 3 to 5Mbps, but 12 Mbps? Sign me up!
The new packages are as follows:
Plan 6 Mbps
6Mbps downsload
1Mbps upload
Free Installation
Free Modem
Free SkyCable Gold plan
Free SkyVoice Plan 100 (Free calls to US & Canada)
Monthly Service Fee: Php3,999
Plan 12 Mbps
12Mbps download
1Mbps upload
Free Installation
Free Modem
Free SkyCable Gold plan
Free SkyVoice Plan 100 (Free calls to US & Canada)
Monthly Service Fee: Php5,999
They also offer a 15-day free trial but I’m not sure what’s the catch with that one.
I’m already spending Php2k on PLDT myDSL and Php500 for Destiny Cable. Upgrading to 6 Mbps means I have to fork out another Php1,500 per month.
It might sound like a good deal especially for those looking into really fast download speeds but I’m in the fence when it comes to reliability.
Any Sky Cable or Sky Broadband user out there who can share some feedback on service reliability (i.e how many downtimes a year, resolution time, etc.)?
Do not get fooled (like I did), Sky Broadband is the pit. My 15 days trial went very well, I confirmed and BANG, torrents started getting totally sluggish. Then I started getting private IP on my modem and no Internet at all at night: “scheduled maintenance” they said on the phone. It happens many times. I had to keep my PLDT DSL as a backup for my VoIP phone.
1) Reliability: horrible
2) Speed: good if you donwload from microsoft.com or ibm.com. P2P is horrendous
Bottom line, if your area is on NGN for PLDT, then go there.
Shh… My neighbor here in Ayala Alabang has Sky Broadband 6mbps. The network is not secured so I was able to connect :).
I’m trying to download torrents but it seems that torrents are not working. I’m guessing that Sky Broadband has blocked Torrent trackers, or that my neighbor has blocked it. But if my neighbor isn’t knowledgeable enough to secure his/her network, then I don’t think he/she will know how to block ports and IPs.
I’m not really sure, but if Torrents are blocked in Sky Broadband, then I see no use on subscribing to it.
Despite reading a few negative thoughts of sky broadband, i still really want to try the 15 free days at least. But when i called the number, they told me that my marikina area (the only condo building i believe in marikina) isn’t supoorted. AHAHAH!!! Im using globe right now, but its sooo slow (384kb i think). with sky broadband, i can get 3mb for around 2k, but if my area isn’t supported i might as well pay globe for there 2mb plan for 2k (with sky, i get an extra 1mb for that price) but then i’ll have to stick with the new globe plan because of the 1 year lock in. what to do, what to do…
Hi.I applied for the 15 day trial.The nice lady even verified that the service is now available in my street.April 2, I waited with anticipation on surfing the net and downloading at 12MBPs of dedicated service compared to the sucky BayanDSL.(It takes 5 days for a serviceman to fix my connection and I just live 2 blocks away from the Bayantel office)-and lo and behold after,calling them 6 times because the fail to call me back 6 times-I was informed that my street is not yet ready for SKYBroadband services.The street next to me is though,the squatters area…
Hay,major disappointment and epic fail on the Lopez group.
Blah. Forget it. Sky Broadband isn’t even responding to my inquiry email. What more if I’m already a subscriber?
Maybe I’ll just stick to PLDT until a good ISP comes out.
And just a tip to those who are complaining about Sky Broadband. Maybe you should go take legal actions against them. I mean, you’re not getting what you paid for right? And still, they advertise these kind of speeds and yet, its not even the average speed. That’s called FALSE ADVERTISING.
Its like what happened to Comcast. Although its kind of different because Comcast was saying that they give unlimited internet connection but the reality is that they are limiting the bandwidth of their users. And their subscribers filed a class suit against them.
I switched from Bayantel dsl to skybroadband about 2 months ago and what a huuuge mistake! It’s jumping from the frying pan to the fire! From the time I connected, there wasn’t a day my connection didn’t go down.. I am from Quezon City, got the 6 mbps plan and the fastest I get is 2 mbps if I’m lucky during the times I am connected. This could be the cause of the ecg abnormality I was recently diagnosed with. But seriously, this is enough to give you a heart attack!!
I have called globe to survey my area and I have decided to give this thing up. But I will fight for the right to do so without the pre termination penalty. This is not what I signed up for!!!
I think Eastern Communications’ target market are business owners. So their price might be hefty. Specially that there are no info about how much their plans are in their website. But thanks anyway. Maybe I’ll consider them when I don’t find any good ISP’s.
*Sigh* good ISP’s are so hard to find these days… wondering when our country will have fast internet providers like what that guy’s talking about on post #43…
Try Eastern Telecom (now Eastern Communications). I heard they were down three hours in four years.
BTW, you flagged an initial comment as a duplicate, This is not good.
Try Eastern Telecom (now Eastern Communications). I heard they were down three hours in four years.
BTW, you glagged an initial comment as a duplicate, This is also not good.
I’m in Makati and for at least a year Sky’s ‘service’ has been down 30% of the time.
Keep well away from Sky Broadband. I’m in Makati and for at least a year their ‘service’ has been down 30% of the time.
I was a loyal PLDT subscriber. For 5 years, we never gave a second thought on switching ISP’s. But now, I am starting to get disappointed with PLDT’s DSL.
Usually, my internet downspeed would hit around @ 2 Mbps off-peak and around 1 Mbps during peak hours and my upspeed would hit around 600 Kbps (off-peak) and around 500 kbps during peak hours. But then one day, my Downspeed suddenly dropped to 380-420 Kbps and my Upspeed to 55-57 Kbps (that’s ridiculously low!).
I tried calling them for support. They made me do things like speed tests and tracert, but they were unable to solve the problem. The customer support guy said that he would report it to their techs can fix it from there and would send one if they can’t. Then, the day after, a tech guy came. Unfortunately, he was still unable to fix the problem and he told me that it was probably due to the number of subscribers in the area. I thought it was ridiculous. I mean, look at my UpSpeed! It shouldn’t be like that!
Now I’m looking for better ISP’s out there and I was researching about Sky Broadband. For now, they look good on paper. But there are alot of negative reviews out there about SkyBroadband. Ofcourse, I’ll try the trial first.
BOTTOM LINE:
If all else goes wrong with the 15 Day Trial. What other ISP’s do you recommend? I’m in the Makati area.
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we used to have SKY Cable, then shifted to Destiny… then when a package of ZPDee + SKY was offered a few years back, we tried out their broadband, and super reliable. Siguro in the years we’ve had it, we’ve had only a few major outages a year that lasted more than 10 min (other times it was simply a matter of unplugging and replugging the cable modem).
our speeds were also upgraded without us being advised, from 384 to 512 to 1mbps, and now that they’ve transitioned to sky broadband we now have 1.5mbps.
no problem so far, but there was a major outage for a few days – turns out our old reliable cable modem (which came from the zpdee days) died on us. the new modem is a lot smaller, but i’ve started noticing some small 5 minute outages at random times of the day.
overall though, given the horror stories i’ve heard from officemates and friends regarding their DSL connections, i’d recommend sky in a flash :)
Zpdee sucks and now it’s Sky Broadband. I live in Makati. I subscribed to Zpdee last June of 08… super, super plenty of downtimes. It almost gave me a heart attack because I work from home and I need to connect to the internet constantly. Just last night and early this morning, I got yet another text message from Sky Broadband that there is a technical problem (for the nth time!) I’ll be working graveyard shift soon and and am worried about the connection. It is not reliable, believe me. I might swtich back to PLDT,I never had a problem with it before. I don’t need the stress I get from Sky Broadband.
Hi,
I have been a Sky Broadband subscriber since November of last year (2008). I’m on the 3Mbps subscription (P1,999/month). And like others here, the 15-day trial went more than well. It was great. I’m a gamer on my week offs and connecting and playing in the Playstation Network was superb. UNTIL of course giving them my confirmation to subscribe at the end of trial! I’ve had downtimes almost 3x a week. They’ve changed my modem 4x already, and worst, checking on my speed (download and up), I get as much as 1.5-2Mbps (uploads at 200-250kbps, i was told it should be at least 512kbps).
Now I couldn’t even get a decent game session on the PS Network. I live in San Juan, right behind the Sky Cable HQ here. So that tells a lot on the distance factor (from HQ) eh.. So it has to be the many subscribers (which have grown because of the promo trial) who’ve been hoodwinged like me.
Now letting this service go, compels me to pay a pre-termination fee of P2,000. Sucks.
wow 12mbs! Thats Great! myDSL is loosing their performance-im from manila, have plan of 990 with phone bundle. but now, its very slow and almost everynight i got slow internet connection and DSL is gone most of the time. hayss..
The Philippines is still way behind the western world in Internet speed, in the UK we can get 56 Mbps, for just 40 pounds a month, thats about 2,720ph, imagine downloading a movie in just 5 minutes, here it takes hours, and its so unreliable, in between the brownouts and the down time in service, It’s amazinge that you get anything done on the internet here in the Philippines.
loko talaga ng smartbro.. madadaya! kaya pla ng mas mabilis gaya ng sky broadband eh.. tapos binabarat nila sa 384 kbps ang mga customers!
This is based on my experience in sampaloc manila
1. Kung magaavail ka nung 15 – day trial, madaming reason at delays para hindi ka makaavail ng free trial service and they will not inform you if you are not aware kahit almost 12 years ka na subscriber ng skycable
2. Kung almost 1 year subscriber ka na ng skycable hindi ka nila iinform na pwede ka pala muna magavail ng 15 day free trial na no cash out sa modem installation
3. Kung tatawag ka sa kanila pagpapasapasahan ka nila na parang bola especially kung may previous request ka sa kanila hindi nila ikaw iinform for updates.
4. Ang subcontracting technical group nila ay sinungaling hindi nila nirereport ang actual na technical problem sa CSR or record ng head office nila, iba ang rereport ng tech team sau sa irereport nila sa csr record mo (in short ” sinungaling”)